Homosexuality and the Practices of Marriage

The essay considers gay and lesbian relationships in terms of Christian practices of marriage. It treats marriage on three levels as it is understood within the Christian tradition: marriage as a set of practices which contribute to the common good, the morality of the sexual act, and Scripture. The essay concludes that sexual orientation is not a sufficient category for judgments about homosexual relationships, and that the practices of marriage provide clearer moral determinations of particular cases.     

Bible Beliefs,Conservative Religious Identity,and Same‐Sex Marriage Support: Examining Main and Moderating Effects

Research finds that Americans who espouse theologically conservative beliefs about the Bible generally oppose same‐sex marriage. Studies exploring this link, however, have been limited in that their operationalization of fundamentalist belief has been problematically conceptualized and they have potentially confounded the effect of conservative religious identity. The current study asks: (1) How do distinct beliefs about the nature and authority of the Bible influence same‐sex marriage support? (2) Do these beliefs influence same‐sex marriage support independently of conservative religious identity? (3) To what extent do Bible beliefs and conservative religious identity moderate one another's effects? And (4) to what extent are these factors moderated by religious tradition and frequency of Bible reading? Analyses of 2006 Portraits of American Life Study data reveal that while identifying as religiously conservative is the strongest predictor of opposition to same‐sex marriage, believing in inerrancy and creationism remain strong predictors in full models. I also find moderating effects between belief in creationism, inerrancy, inspiration; religious‐conservative identity; and religious tradition. Findings clarify how theological beliefs and religious identity shape support for same‐sex marriage across religious traditions.     

The Chief Inducement? The Idea of Marriage as Friendship

A combination of social forces has thrown marriage into question in westernised societies at the end of the millennium. This uncertainty creates space for new ways of thinking about marriage. In this context, we examine the idea of marriage as friendship. We trace its genealogy in the work of Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor and then subject it to critical scrutiny using some of Michel de Montaigne's ideas. We ask how applicable the ideal of higher friendship is to marriage and what might be gained and lost by a synthesis of marriage and friendship. Grounding the discussion in historical sources is valuable because the topic is so little explored in the contemporary philosophical literature. This approach also allows any enduring value in these historical texts to be elicited     

Marriage as Discipleship: Luther's Praise of Married Life

Abstract : This article reviews the Luther's evangelical understanding of sexuality and marriage and its theological roots. Marriage is a demanding vocation. But while Luther speaks honestly about the perilous and painful challenges of marriage, he is also sensitive to the delights of love and courtship, giving beautiful expression to the joys of marriage.     

Reforming Marriage: A Comparative Approach

In this article, I examine the case for privatising marriage and replacing civil marriage with inclusive civil union policies. I argue against this proposal because of its likely detrimental impact on the social standing of women and girls. In order to assess the importance of civil marriage historically and cross‐culturally, I examine a contemporary debate over marriage reform in some predominantly Islamic societies in regard to temporary marriage. I also propose a policy to protect the interests of children of both married and unmarried parents, so that this issue will be less of a stumbling block to proposals for inclusive civil marriage.     

From Friendship to Marriage: Revising Kant

This paper examines Kant's accounts of friendship and marriage, and argues for what can be called an ideal of "moral marriage" based on Kant's notion of moral friendship. After explaining why Kant values friendship so highly, it gives an account of the ways in which marriage falls far short, according to Kant, of what friendship has to offer. The paper then argues that many of Kant's reasons for finding marriage morally impoverished compared with friendship are wrong-headed. The paper further argues that a few of Kant's views about friendship are false. The main point is that, when we slightly revise Kant's account of friendship and jettison Kant's misguided notions about marriage, we see that marriages can aspire to much of the same moral richness as friendships. Finally, the paper argues that this friendship model of marriage does not obscure the important ways in which marriages and friendships differ.     

The Divorce of Marriage and Parenthood

Marriage is a template for domestic life and the problems that arise in it. The patterned assumptions that traditionally defined marriage gave substance to the family. These assumptions have become less compelling over the course of a century. In this paper, I suggest how and why this has happened. I focus on the meaning of parenthood and its relationship to marriage. In the course of a century, parenthood has been redefined as a rational choice governed by calculation. As a result, childbearing, pregnancy, marriage and parenthood have been redefined. Their relationships to one another have, to varying degrees, been altered. Marriage is an institutionalized way to care for the babies that once came, inevitably, as a result of sexual intercourse. What becomes of marriage when sex no longer produces babies? The answer is that everything about marriage and the family changes. Such changes help explain the rise of professional family therapy and related fields.     

Implicit Theories of Marriage and Evaluations of Marriage on Television

This study integrated social-cognitive and interpersonal frameworks in the mass communication setting. Although television presents a fairly consistent view of marriage as conventional and happy, we proposed that college students’ marital schemata, or implicit theories about marriage, would influence their evaluations of television couples’ marital satisfaction. College students (N = 358) completed two waves of questionnaires that used Fitzpatrick's (2988) Relational Dimensions Instrument to assess marital schemata and perceptions of married couples on television. Partial correlations revealed that greater similarity between marital schemata and ratings of television couples’ marriage type was associated with higher ratings of perceived television marital satisfaction. Analysis of covariance indicated that this effect held only for the Traditional schema type. The discussion focuses on the implications of the findings for media effects and marital communication research.     

The Orthodox Understanding of Marriage in the Ecumenical Context

This article deals with interchurch and interreligious marriage as a challenge to Orthodox theology and its self-conscience. The canons of the church came into being at a time when the church identified itself with history, and the Empire with the kingdom of God. Their purpose was to strengthen the historical construction of the church and the Empire. In such a context, the “other” was a threat to the historical existence of the church. Eschatology offers a different perspective, seeing the whole world as a church “in becoming.” Mixed marriages pose the following questions: How do we understand ourselves? How do we understand others? Our tradition has been challenged with new events and new realities, demanding bravery to solve them.     

Living Dogma and Marriage

The decision to get married, as well as choosing whom to marry, is of the utmost importance to most people. This decision consists of many amoral considerations, but an ethical relationship arises when a promise is made, especially a vow that binds for a lifetime and affects oneself, one’s spouse, one’s children, and society. This essay provides an account of ideal romantic marriage, arguing that John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty provides an excellent foundation for constructing such an account. Neither dead dogma nor living truth is a healthy model for marriage, so a hybrid model of marriage, living dogma, is developed. The importance of the marital vow becomes apparent as the living dogma account is revealed, and this examination yields a model for how to decide when and whom to marry.     

Marriage in the Context of Immigration

Two very important life events, marriage and immigration, often take place in close relation to one another. It is common, for example, for a couple to marry and emigrate together or for a recent immigrant to marry a native of the new country. In addition to addressing the effect of culture on marriage, the article discusses how these two life events parallel each other and how they interact with each other. In both marriage and immigration, the individual must mourn the loss of old objects and make a commitment to new objects. The personal choices made and reactions to those choices are attempts to meet intrapsychic needs, sometimes normal and sometimes pathological. In addition, both marriage and immigration create intrapsychic needs that the other may be used to fill. A clinical example illustrates these points.     

Individuation in Marriage

This is an outline of marriage as a relationship which may facilitate continued personal growth and individuation (Jung's concept for the process of selfhood). Seeing marriage, including their own, in this fashion guides the authors in psychotherapy of marital partners and of the relationship.     

Contextual Influences on Marriage

Abstract— Current proposals to promote and strengthen marriage among low-income populations focus on values and behavioral skills as primary targets of intervention. Marital research that examines contextual influences on marriage calls these emphases into question. Ethnographic and survey research reveal no evidence that populations experiencing higher rates of divorce value healthy marriages any less than other populations do. Longitudinal and observational research reveals two mechanisms through which the environment of a marriage may enhance or constrain effective relationship maintenance. First, some environments contain fewer sources of support and pose more severe challenges than others, presenting marriages in those environments with greater burdens than marriages in more supportive environments are faced with. Second, when demands external to the marriage are relatively high, even couples with adequate coping skills may have difficulty exercising those skills effectively. Together, such findings suggest that successful policies and interventions to strengthen marriages need to acknowledge the environments within which marriages take place.     

The State, Marriage and Divorce

ABSTRACT This essay advances several interrelated arguments concerning the proper role of the state with regard to marriage and divorce but my main contention is that 'pure'no-fault divorce laws are unjust—or, at least, they are unjust if marriage involves a genuinely contractual element, and there seems to be very little doubt that it does. Locke, Kant and Hegel are three eminent thinkers who are alike in viewing marriage as a contract (though in the case of Hegel, it is a 'contract to transcend the standpoint of contract') and in the first two sections of the essay I consider their views on the role of contract in marriage. Whilst holding (with Hegel) that marriage is more than a contract, I also hold (with Kant) that it is not less than a contract. In section three I consider the implications of this 'not less than', the most important one being that 'pure'no-fault divorce laws are unjust. I shall contend that whilst the irretrievable breakdown of marriage may be regarded as a suitable ground for divorce, it simply cannot, and certainly ought not to, be regarded as a justificatory basis for the laying aside of rights acquired by individuals as a result of their having entered into a marital contract. However minimal one might wish the role of the state to be, or however averse one might be from allowing the state any role at all in purely personal and confidential relationships, yet to allow the expression 'the irretrievable breakdown of marriage'to be employed as a olanket to cover over the infringement of personal, contractually engendered and civilly recognised rights, is not to exercise commendable restraint but is, rather, to condone what is simply an abnegation by the state of its basic responsibility to ensure that justice prevails.     

Decoupling Marriage and Parenting

This article argues for separating the institutions of marriage and parenting, conceptually and legally. Marriage is neither necessary nor adequate for fostering cooperative and stable co‐parenting. Because promoting marriage fails to protect all children, the state should develop a more suitable formal mechanism whereby co‐parents can commit to cooperate in good faith in order to best serve the interests of their children. Like civil marriage, many of the terms of these contracts are aspirational and not enforceable, though they can guide arrangements for custody and financial support. Co‐parenting agreements need not be limited to two parents, nor need they be limited to legal parents, but can include de facto parents, such as stepparents, foster parents, and other support parents. One important aim of these agreements is to recognise and support the valuable work that married or unmarried co‐parents perform, and to protect the parental rights of caregivers in different kinds of situations.     

Same-Sex Marriage and Equality

Some argue that same-sex marriage is not an equal rights issue because, where same-sex marriage is illegal, heterosexuals and homosexuals have the exact same right to marry—i.e., the right to marry one adult of the opposite sex. I dispute this argument by pointing out that while societies that prohibit same-sex marriage equally permit individual heterosexuals and homosexuals to marry one adult of the opposite sex, same-sex couples in such societies are denied an important right that opposite-sex couples enjoy—i.e., the right to marry. I argue that the right to marry is fundamentally, not an individual right, but a couple’s collective right, analogous to assembly rights.     

Kant and The Marriage Right*

Abstract: The provision of a marriage right is a distinctive aspect of Kant's political philosophy and seems, initially, difficult to reconcile with the general concern with ensuring external freedom of action apparent in the universal principle of Right and the sole innate right said to follow from this principle. I claim that this provision can be regarded as consistent with this general focus and that Kant's treatment of issue suggests an interesting secular argument for the institution of marriage.     

Kantian Marriage and Beyond: Why It Is Worth Thinking about Kant on Marriage

Kant has famously argued that monogamous marriage is the only relationship where sexual use can take place “without degrading humanity and breaking the moral laws.” Kantian marriage, however, has been the target of fierce criticisms by contemporary thinkers: it has been regarded as flawed and paradoxical, as being deeply at odds with feminism, and, at best, as plainly uninteresting. In this paper, I argue that Kantian marriage can indeed survive these criticisms. Finally, the paper advances the discussion beyond marriage. Drawing on Kant's conception of friendship, I suggest that he might have overlooked the possibility of sex being morally permissible in yet another context.